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| The entrance to the first of three tunnels at the top |
May 19 - We begin the Descent with our departure from Port de Baye which is determined by a red or green light placed directly across the canal from where we are moored. The VNF eclusier dropped by last night to let us know we should have a green light for the tunnels at 9:00 the next morning. We were up early getting everything ready, filling the water tank and
all.
9:00 - Red light
9:30 - Red light - there must be a boat coming up the other side, they get first priority. Once they are through, or 10:00 happens it should be our turn.
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| Passage between tunnels two & three |
9:50 - Green light, we cast off, just as another boat heads into the tunnel in front of us, looks like we’ll be sharing écluses for the day. We give them a bit of a head start, so we don’t catch up with them in the dark of the first tunnel which is over a kilometer in length. Testing our spotlights we had found they were not working, spent a couple of hours trying to find the cause, no luck. Had an electrician that was supposed to come check, didn’t show. All the French boaters we talked with said “just use a torch (flashlight) so Joan sat in the housetop with our two brightest flashlights (the tunnel is too low to stand), one to shine on each wall. We made it through with just a couple of wall contacts with a bumper.
When we came out of the last tunnel the pond at the top of the 16 écluses was empty. We tied Juniper up and walked down a couple of écluses and there were two boats coming up the chain, with four eclusiers handling écluse gates . Two at the current écluse and two preparing the next for your arrival.
It turned out the boat that was ahead of us in the tunnel was just making the trip through, then turning around to go back. We had each écluse to ourselves with four people helping. It was a pretty sweet ride down. Lunch time found us at a comfortable grassy area for our hour and a half wait till it was time to finish.
At the bottom of our sixteen écluses we decided to call it quits for the day. Thunderstorms were predicted and we felt like we would enjoy them more in our dry salon, enjoying a bottle of wine. |
Looking back up the valley - The écluse we had just left
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| One of the many éclusier houses built in the 1800s - Now private cottages |
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Écluse art - Many of the bollards get painted
This one was very artistically done |
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| Waiting for the water to drain |
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| Our crew of four éclusiers who made our trip down so smooth |
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